Carbon nanotubes are available either as multi-wall or single-wall nanotubes. Multi-wall carbon nanotubes have exceptional properties such as excellent electrical and thermal conductivities. They have applications in numerous fields such as storage of hydrogen (C. Liu, Y. Y. Fan, M. Liu, H. T. Cong, H. M. Cheng, M. S. Dresselhaus, Science 286 (1999), 1127; M. S. Dresselhaus, K. A Williams, P. C. Eklund, MRS Bull. (1999), 45) or other gases, adsorption heat pumps, materials reinforcement or nanoelectronics (M. Menon, D. Srivastava, Phy. Rev. Lett. 79 (1997), 4453). Single-wall carbon nanotubes, on the other hand, possess properties that are significantly superior to those of multi-wall nanotubes. However, single-wall carbon nanotubes are available only in small quantities since known methods of production do not produce more than few grams per day of these nanotubes. For any industrial application such as storage or material reinforcement, the amount of single-wall carbon nanotubes produced must be at least a few kilograms per day.
Nowadays, the most popular methods for producing single-wall carbon nanotubes are laser ablation, electric arc and chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The two first methods are based on the same principal: local evaporation of a graphite target enriched with a metal catalyst and subsequent condensation of the vapor to form nanotubes (A. A. Puretzky, D. B. Geohegan, S. J. Pennycook, Appl. Phys. A 70 (2000), 153). U.S. Pat. No. 6,183,714 discloses a method of making ropes of single-wall carbon nanotubes using a laser pulse to produce a vapor containing carbon and one or more Group VIII transition metals. U.S. Pat. No. 5,424,054 discloses a process for producing hollow carbon fibers having wall consisting essentially of a single layer of carbon atoms using an electric arc. The process involves contacting carbon vapor with cobalt vapor under specific conditions, and is thus limited to the use of cobalt vapor.
Although the above methods are relatively efficient for the transformation of carbon into nanotubes, they have inherent drawbacks. The vaporisation of graphite is not energetically advantageous since 717 kJ are required to evaporate one mole of carbon. Therefore, the production of single-wall carbon nanotubes via laser ablation and electric arc consumes a lot of energy for small quantities of nanotubes produced. Moreover, these processes are non-continuous since they must be stopped for renewing the source of carbon once the graphite has been consumed.
In the CVD method as well as in the other two methods described above, the metal catalyst plays a key role in the synthesis of the nanotubes. For example, in the CVD method, the carbon-containing gas is decomposed by the particles of metal catalyst on which the nanotubes form. The CVD method suffers from a major drawback since the encapsulation of the catalyst particles by carbon stops the growth of the nanotubes (R. E. Smalley et al. Chem. Phys. Lett. 296 (1998), 195). In addition, due to the non-selectivity of the method, nanotubes having two, three or multi-walls are obtained at the same time as the single-wall nanotubes.
A promising method for the production of single-wall carbon nanotubes involves the use of a plasma torch for decomposing a mixture of carbon-containing substance and a metal catalyst and then condensing the mixture to obtain single-wall carbon nanotubes. This method has been recently described by O. Smiljanic, B. L. Stansfield, J. -P. Dodelet, A. Serventi, S. Dësilets, in Chem. Phys. Lett. 356 (2002), 189 and showed encouraging results. Such a method, however, has an important drawback since a premature extinction of the plasma torch occurs due to a rapid formation of carbon deposit in the torch. This method is therefore non-continuous and requires removal of the carbon deposit. Thus, large quantities of single-wall carbon nanotubes cannot be produced.